CELESTIAL GENERALS

Oath of the Peach Garden, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Oath of the Peach Garden, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Deity
Guan Yu
Painting Type
Scroll Painting
Dynasty
Edo period
Date / Period
c. 1780
Artist
Matsumura Goshun (Japanese, 1752–1811)
Institution
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection
ASIAN – Hanging scroll
Medium / Material
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Image: 28.2 x 25.2 cm (11 1/8 x 9 15/16 in.); Including mounting: 114.3 x 44.2 cm (45 x 17 3/8 in.)
Accession Number
1987.35
Source
Oath of the Peach Garden, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. c. 1780. hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. The Cleveland Museum of Art. John L. Severance Fund. 1987.35

Description

This painting depicts a pivotal scene from the classic Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Three men, Liu Bei, seen to the left, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, seen to the right, become sworn brothers amid peach blossom trees. Set toward the end of China’s Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE), the episode features the tagline “We seek not to be born on the same day but hope that we may die on the same day.” Written in the 1300s, the first published translation in Japanese appeared around 1690, after which it exploded in popularity.